Kenhina || Catch me

Chapter 13 // Kenma

Time quickly passed and as much as the two boys wanted to meet up again, they didn't seem to have the time to do so. Their first meeting in May was starting to get further and further away. June was a busy month, Interhigh took place and Karasuno didn't manage to make it to Nationals. Hinata had texted Kenma, it was obvious that he was extremely sad and disappointed.

From: Hinata
subject: interhigh
Kenma, we lost to Aobajohsai.

From: Me
subject: re:interhigh
Shoyo, I'm so sorry :(
I'm sure you guys did very well!

Kenma tried to calm him in the matter, but to be honest, he was sad about it as well. Suddenly his newly found motivation to do well in matches had faded away. June wasn't a good month. Even Hinata's 16th birthday wasn't able to bring their mood up as much as the teen had hoped. Kenma was preparing for important tests and wasn't able to video chat his friend as he would have liked to do. The older teen did send him a card as well as a gift card for the Nintendo e-shop since he knew the redhead had a switch, and honestly, he couldn't think of a better gift to buy. Kenma had even tried to doodle a few things on the birthday card but it ended up looking rather messy. Whatever, it was about the intention and effort so he sent it anyways. Hinata had excitedly texted him to thank the teen, which made Kenma's heart flutter a little. 

July on the other hand was a good month. Early on, Nekoma's coach and teachers had told them about the training camp which gets hosted yearly. Normally Kenma would be annoyed at this, the training camp last year had been tiring and not an experience he'd like to repeat, but this year was going to be different. 

"Oi guys, take a break", Kuroo spoke up during their afternoon practice after their coach had left early due to some personal circumstances. Everyone gladly accepted this proposal and sat down to drink some water and wipe off their sweat. Kenma, of course, was not an exception to this and lazily walked towards his bag to take out some water as well. Kuroo followed.

"You seem down," the tall third-year spoke to his childhood friend. "Of course I'm down", Kenma hissed. "We didn't get to play Karasuno in nationals and now we have that training camp coming up, which you know I hated last year." Kuroo pouted "Aww come on, did that take away all your motivation to even try during volleyball?" Kenma glared at his friend, clearly not up for the dark-haired teen's teasing. 

"What if I told you I overheard something interesting~" Kuroo whispered with a smirk on his face, leaning closer towards the second-year.

"Well, I won't be able to care unless you tell me about it," The teen replied, trying to hide his curiosity. "I overheard the coach speak to the teachers," Kuroo started. "So?" Kenma asked, "You're the club leader, you are allowed to know everything."

"Yeah well, I thought this news would cheer you up, it's not been settled completely so it might be better not to share it," the third-year took an ominous pause, probably waiting for a reaction out of Kenma, who just stared at him blankly. "They invited Karasuno to the training camp, you'll be able to see your hyperactive boyfriend again." 

The teen's eyes grew wide in shock; "For real?", he hadn't even noticed how his friend had addressed Hinata. Kuroo nodded, happy to see how his friend had noticeably cheered up. "Now start practicing again seriously, you don't want them to beat us, do you?" Kenma shook his head and abruptly ended his short break. "Come on Kuroo, I'll toss you some balls."

Kenma hadn't texted Hinata yet, because he didn't want to hype the first-year up for nothing if this ended up not going through for some reason and disappoint him, but after a few days, the news about Karasuno joining the training camp seemed to have spread like wildfire and was also confirmed by their coach at that point. 

The same afternoon Kenma received a message;

From: Hinata
subject: TOKYO!!!
KENMA!! I HEARD WE CAN JOIN THE TRAINING CAMP!!!
WE'RE COMING TO TOKYO!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!

Kenma read the message with a sense of joy flowing through his entire body. The redhead seemed incredibly excited about coming to Tokyo again and he seemed to be happy to be able to see the second-year again too. Kenma finally allowed himself to smile and be happy about Karasuno coming. Especially now that he knew Shoyo felt the same way about it. This was actually going to happen!

The days leading up towards the training camp seemed to go slower every hour. Was this how it felt to look forward to something? Waiting for two weeks seemed to last a month, but the laid-back teen seemed more energetic than usual and he himself noticed that he got less annoyed when something slightly bothersome took place. The main example of this being training together with Lev, which he now was able to withstand.

As slowly as the days passed, they still did and everyone around Kenma noticed that his general mood had become brighter. Kuroo teased him about it and the rest of his team just seemed happy for him. Plus Kenma's input in their training had doubled since last month, which nobody complained about either. 

The day before the training camp, the second-year had trouble falling asleep, like a kid before his birthday or an exciting school trip. He kept thinking about how he was going to see Shoyo again and how exciting it was going to be. The teen didn't know why this made him feel so happy, he had only known the boy for a few months and they only hung out twice, but that didn't help contain Kenma's excitement at all. Kenma was pretty sure he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

The next morning the teen woke up to a notification on his phone, way before his alarm clock went off.

From: Hinata
subject: OMW
KENMA! It's so early, I should be tired but I'm not!
We're supposed to get on the bus soon, 
you're probably still asleep because you're such a sleepy head.
Anyways! I can't wait to see you later today!
Please look forward to playing some great matches! :D